Kansas City Chiefs Murder-Suicide Rocks NFL; Game To Go On?

By Nate WinklerCold Hard Football Facts AFC West Correspondent (@natewinkler)

The Football world has been shaken to it's core this morning as we are learning the details of what is being classified as a murder-suicide involving linebacker Jovan Belcher of the Kansas City Chiefs.

Kansas City's KCTV5 first broke the story here shortly after Jay Glazer reported the news on twitter this morning. Reports are that Belcher murdered his girlfriend (update: Kassandra Perkins, 22), who is also the mother of their 3-month-old daughter, early this morning before traveling to the stadium. The daughter was present at the time of the shooting.

At the stadium, Belcher allegedly spoke with General Manager Scott Pioli and Head Coach Romeo Crennel in the parking lot before walking away and turning the gun on himself just as police were arriving.

Belcher was in his fourth season as an inside linebacker for the Chiefs. He had 179 tackles and 1 sack in 44 career starts according to pro-football-reference.

The NFL Network is reporting that the Carolina Panthers have been advised to continue with travel plans to Kansas City in preparation for tomorrow's game.

It would be unprecedented for the league to postpone or cancel the game after such an incident, but we can't recall such a traumatic event involving a player happening the day before kickoff, let alone at the team's facility.

Kansas City has had a dreadful season to this point with a 1-10 record thanks to the league's worst-ranked offense that leads the league in turnovers.

It's hard to speculate as to what Belcher was going through, so we won't. There are more important things in life than even football and our thoughts and prayers are with the Kansas City Chiefs organization and the young daughter Belcher left behind.